a dinner in Chinatown

On our recent trip to San Francisco, Lucy attended a Chinese dinner banquet in Chinatown. Having attended numerous such banquets over the years, often as wedding receptions or for birthdays, I can say that there is always too much food to eat. (Yes, there can be too much of a good thing!) There are normally several courses, up to 8 or more (meats, poultry, seafood (fish, crab, shrimp), vegetables, soup, etc.), plus rice, and then comes dessert. The left over food is taken home by the guests/attendees and eaten the next day. Personally, I liked the fact that each round table (for ten) many times had a bottle of liquor in the center for easy access. Cognac was popular at these events. At our wedding reception, we had a bottle of Scotch Whiskey for each table.

Here are 10 pictures from that dinner. We have several cooking aficionados among our readers. Enjoy.

Melon soup in a large pot.

Veggies in soup with chicken. Looks like bok choy or some kind of collards.

Mixed veggie, lotus root, broccoli, snow peas, black (edible) fungus.

Sweet and sour soup.

Pineapple fried rice.

Na’an. Not familiar with this, looks somewhat like tortillas, a flour based item?

Shrimp.

Ribs. Both beef and pork are popular meats at these banquets.

Another meat dish. As I was not there, not sure if it is pork or beef.

Steamed chicken. Prepared by steam, the meat is usually more tender and not as dry as baked chicken. However, some of the restaurants use too much salt in its preparation.